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Special Olympics Bharat Area Director receives prestigious award

noviembre 03, 2011

Dr. Shivajee Kumar, one of Special Olympics Bharat’s Area Directors, was presented with the prestigious Khel Samman award from the Government of Bihar in eastern India. Dr. Kumar is lauded for his 12-year contribution to sports promotion in Bihar's intellectually disabled community.

Dr Shivajee Kumar (left) receives his award from the Bihar Government in India for his work in the intellectually disabled community.

Dedicated to Sports Promotion in Bihar

In addition to his work with Special Olympics Bihar, Dr. Kumar is the Managing Director of Samarpan, an institute for child development, mental health and rehabilitation for the handicapped, and is responsible for 36 special schools in Bihar’s districts.

Bihar has the second largest population of intellectually disabled people, with more than 1.2 million people classified as ID. Special Olympics Bihar has registered more than 68,000 athletes, 13,000 coaches and 8,000 families under Dr. Kumar’s leadership since 1995.

The program has conducted an impressive total of 19,000 sports events to date.

Dr. Kumar’s work is far from finished. He has set the task of creating greater awareness about ID and reaching out to those in the ID community to get involved with the Movement. With a goal of training 20,000 coaches and upping the number of competitions for athletes, he is sure to succeed.